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Indians Designate Eric Haase For Assignment

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The Indians have designated catcher Eric Haase for assignment, the club announced. His roster spot was needed for César Hernández, whose one-year signing is now official.

Haase, who just turned 27, has only tallied 34 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. He spent nearly all of 2018-19 with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, where he’s tallied nearly 900 plate appearances with a cumulative .232/.302/.479 slash with 49 home runs.

He’s carried that same high-strikeout, big power profile throughout his minor-league career. Coupled with a solid defensive reputation, that was enough to make him a decent prospect, as he twice finished among the back half of Cleveland’s top 31 farmhands at Baseball America.

Haase comes with all six seasons of team control and another option year, so it’s plausible some other club will give him a look. Numerous clubs could be in the market for catching help. Speculatively speaking, teams like the Tigers and Pirates could be in position to give playing time to a talented but unproven option in hopes of striking gold.

Quick Hits: Cishek, Red Sox, Cubs, Indians

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We’ll highlight a couple notes from around the league to kick off Sunday morning.

  • Veteran reliever Steve Cishek, a Cape Cod native, “would like” to sign with the Red Sox, hears Peter Gammons of the Athletic (Twitter link). Cishek is among the top relief arms remaining in a generally weak free agent class for late-game options. The 33-year-old submariner compiled a dazzling 2.55 ERA in 134.1 innings over the last two years with the Cubs. However, his age and a pedestrian combination of strikeouts (24.3%) and walks (10.3%) over that time figure to tamp down his market. The MLBTR staff forecast a modest two-year, $10MM deal for Cishek at the start of the offseason. However, it’s not clear Boston would even be willing to dole out that kind of money, Gammons notes, in light of the Sox’s failure to match the Blue Jays’ one-year, $4MM offer to reel in Travis Shaw, a player whom Boston liked. Cishek’s market has seemingly been quiet to this point, with only the Twins known to have checked in a few weeks back.
  • The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma explored the facility of new Cubs’ director of hitting Justin Stone. A biomechanics expert, Stone broke down a generic hitter’s swing and bat path, perhaps offering a sneak-peek into the work he’ll do with Chicago’s batters next season. The subscription-only piece is worth a read for those interested in how biomechanics is being used to help hitters optimize their individual swings.
  • The Indians have hired former big league infielder Andy Tracy to manage their AAA affiliate in Columbus, reports Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Tracy served as Columbus’ hitting coach in 2019. The former 28th-round draft choice managed in the low minors in the Phillies’ organization back in 2012.

Ryosuke Kikuchi To Stay In Japan

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SUNDAY: Given the deep free agent market for second basemen this offseason, it was plausible Kikuchi would again explore his MLB options next winter. That no longer seems to be the case. Kikuchi instead agreed to a four-year contract extension with the Carp on Friday, reports the Japan Times. The deal will reportedly pay him $2.7MM per year, with unspecified additional incentives available.

THURSDAY: Japanese infielder Ryosuke Kikuchi won’t be coming to the majors in 2020. Kikuchi’s Nippon Professional Baseball team – the Hiroshima Carp – posted him Dec. 3, which gave him a chance to sign with a big league club through Jan. 2. But Kikuchi announced this week that he’ll remain in his homeland, according to Sanspo (hat tip to Patrick Newman of NPB Tracker).

“The market moved slowly, so I took the decision that it would be better to inform the team early that I would stay,” Kikuchi said. “I was really torn.”

Kikuchi spent the previous eight years as a member of the Carp, with whom he developed a strong defensive reputation at second base. The soon-to-be 30-year-old’s offense hasn’t quite been up to par, though, as evidenced by his .271/.315/.391 line across 4,695 plate appearances in NPB.

Unfortunately for Kikuchi, his lack of offensive prowess no doubt worked against him as he tried to find a major league deal. Moreover, it surely didn’t help Kikuchi’s cause that he was an unproven commodity in a free-agent class of second basemen that’s loaded with familiar names. Starlin Castro, Brian Dozier, Ben Zobrist, Neil Walker, Jason Kipnis, Brock Holt, Scooter Gennett, Asdrubal Cabrera and Wilmer Flores are just some of the veteran second basemen who are still without contracts as the new year nears.

MLBTR Poll: Grading Miami’s Corey Dickerson Signing

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The Marlins’ signing of outfielder Corey Dickerson to a two-year, $17.5MM deal will not go down as this offseason’s most surprising–in fact, his ultimate guarantee was right in line with MLBTR’s prediction of a two-year, $15MM pact back in November. In terms of context, the deal also sits snugly alongside Kole Calhoun’s signature on a two-year, $16MM deal with Arizona earlier this month.

Dickerson might be called the ideal of a solid regular. He’s not an elite defender, his 2018 Gold Glove notwithstanding, but his facility with the stick has made him a must-start during stints with the Rockies, Rays, Pirates and Phillies since breaking into the league 2013. The thirty-year-old owns a .286/.328/.504 slash line with 115 home runs in nearly 800 career games, with a 117 wRC+ suggesting he’s been nearly 20 percent better than an average hitter since 2013. By the latter metric, he’s performed comparably with players like Starling Marte (117 wRC+) and Francisco Lindor (119 wRC+) over that span.

Dickerson has recorded 2.6 fWAR or better in three separate seasons as a full-timer, despite nagging injuries throughout his career; if he can perform to those levels for the Fish, there should be a lot of excess value in this deal. Of course, Dickerson may not spend his entire tenure with Miami, as the limited term of this deal might make him an attractive trade target at the ’20 and ’21 deadlines, assuming his continued health and Miami’s continuation in a textbook rebuild pattern (perhaps not a safe assumption considering Miami’s similarly savvy Jesus Aguilar and Jonathan Villar pickups this winter).

Dickerson’s signing does also carry a few implications beyond just shoring up Miami’s corner outfield, as his relatively light commitment is further evidence that the ever-heightening AAV peaks achieved by premium performers in recent winters have yet to trickle down in the form of substantive raises for middle-class players. Moreover, Dickerson’s relative merits when pitted against free agents Marcell Ozuna and Nicholas Castellanos may cast some doubt on the ability of those players to secure truly hefty guarantees before camp breaks.

Regardless, Miami’s signing of Dickerson reads like the move of a team inching its way out of a rebuild by committing a reasonable amount of money to a relatively stable, if imperfect, player in his prime; the club may yet have a few more losing years ahead, but it’s hard to accuse a team of “tanking” when they add players of his caliber.

Let’s open the floor: how do you grade Miami’s Dickerson addition? (Poll link for app users)


Latest On Matthew Boyd

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Trade talks between the Angels and Tigers in regard to hurler Matthew Boyd have run cold for the moment, according to a tweet from Jon Morosi of the MLB Network citing unnamed sources (link). According to Morosi, Angels outfield prospect Brandon Marsh was one name discussed.

Chatter on Boyd has been somewhat quieter than one might’ve expected heading into an offseason relatively light on clear-cut pitching trade targets. Boyd, under Detroit’s watch through 2022, may not factor into the Tigers’ next championship-contending team, making his forthcoming arb awards somewhat superfluous for a rebuilding club. On the other side of the coin, his projected $6.4MM award for 2020 and promising underlying metrics paint him as an attractive target for a club looking for near-term pitching reinforcements.

The 28-year-old has been a consistent presence in the rumor mill for a few years now, although his bottom-line results have left something to be desired. An interested club would have to overlook the fact that the lefty has yet to post a full season pitching beneath a 4.00 ERA, but Boyd did demonstrate in 2019 that there may yet be some gold within the pyrite. A 4.56 ERA across 185.1 innings won’t quicken many heartbeats, but the hurler posted career-best 11.56 SO/9 and 2.43 BB/9 rates last year; his 3.88 xFIP would also indicate that there’s a better pitcher in Boyd beyond the surface-level numbers.

Even if Boyd promises to be a solid trade target for many clubs, it’s understandable that Angels GM Billy Eppler may have balked at the mention of Marsh’s name. The 22-year-old outfielder and former second-round pick just wrapped a Double-A season that saw him hit .300/.383/.428 with seven home runs and 18 steals—production that added up to a 137 wRC+ in the Texas League. The Indians were also said to have asked for Marsh in a potential Corey Kluber deal with L.A., so it would certainly seem that teams around the game have taken notice of Marsh’s promise.

Latest On Braves’ Third Base Plans

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The Braves are unlikely to “aggressively” pursue a Nolan Arenado trade as long as incumbent starter Josh Donaldson remains on the market, Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported on Saturday citing unnamed sources (link).

Yesterday, our own Steve Adams explored in detail the many obstacles impeding a potential Atlanta-Arenado connection. First, there is the $234MM remaining on the third baseman’s contract; the addition of that sum would push Atlanta’s payroll into historic heights moving forward, and the club’s lack of serious engagement on Anthony Rendon could signal that the Braves aren’t true players at such a price tag. Then, there are the logistical issues of Arenado’s no-trade clause, his ability to opt-out after 2021, and the fact that his contract is set to run through his age-35 season. Donaldson, often positioned as being a bit “old” for a premium free-agent, would only be 37 at the end of his reportedly sought-after four-year deal. All of this, of course, is before considering any potential prospect capital Atlanta may have to surrender in acquiring the Colorado cornerstone.

Today’s note would seem to lend credence to the idea that the Braves may simply prefer spending payroll capital in acquiring Donaldson. In an offseason that has seen Donaldson court a four-year contract and Arenado’s name enter the rumor mill, the two superstar third baggers have become more or less linked. While Kris Bryant has also loomed as a speculative trade fit for teams in need at the hot corner, a few clubs have possibly spent the last several weeks weighing the relative merits of acquiring either Donaldson or Arenado. For the moment, this report indicates that Atlanta has a clear order of preference in terms of which scenario they prefer at third, with Morosi suggesting that the team won’t actively court Arenado unless Donaldson signs elsewhere—making the former a rather premium “plan B”.

Still, Morosi said only that the team will not “aggressively” pursue Arenado, so the door remains open, in theory. As far as potential trade partners for the Rockies superstar go, few clubs could match up with the Braves in terms of young prospect capital. When your team is built around Ronald Acuna and Ozzie Albies, youngsters like Austin Riley, Drew Waters, and Cristian Pache can seem like downright luxuries. In Riley’s case, in particular, it’s hard to ignore that Atlanta seems rather intent on filling the third base spot where he would figure to offer the most long-term value–even if that’s just personal conjecture.

Quick Hits: Shaw, Red Sox, Flexibility, Indians

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Alex Speier of The Boston Globe noted on Saturday that the Red Sox were interested in bringing back Travis Shaw before the third baseman signed a one-year, $4MM deal with the Jays. Boston wasn’t prepared to make Shaw an offer without first moving salary via trade, so the corner infielder went elsewhere in the division, Speier says. We heard during Shaw’s brief time on the open market that as many as 14 teams were interested in acquiring his services, so the real takeaway seems to be just how tightly Boston may be constricted by payroll this winter. It’s also been widely understood that CBT concerns would limit the club in 2020, but an aversion to bringing in a player on even a $4MM deal may signal, by my own speculation, that the club may well be limited to minor league deals or near-minimum guarantees from here until camp breaks.

Two more items from around the game…

  • In the same piece, Speier penned a thoughtful exploration of the changing shape of roster construction around the game. Although emphasis has increasingly been placed on young, cost-controlled talent in recent years, especially in the wake of the Cubs’ and Astros’ successful full-scale rebuilding efforts, several young superstars have ended up on the trade block this winter. Mookie Betts, Carlos Correa, and Francisco Lindor have all been involved in trade rumors to varying degrees, a development that may have been unthinkable when those players broke into the game just a few years ago. As Speier puts it, “the openness of recent title contenders to such drastic roster shakeups reflects a late stage in the development of homegrown cores in an era where teams are treating the luxury tax as a major constraint.”
    Building teams around waves of young talent may only leave cost-conscious teams with a three-year window of payroll flexibility, as collective arb raises can trigger payroll bumps in the tens of millions in a single offseasons. If, as most teams built around youth movements have done, those early minimum-salary seasons are supplemented by major free agent signings, then the payroll crunch gets all the more severe by year four or five of a team’s window. The circumvention around this, of course, is the early-career extension, which, as Speier points out, the Sox used to a happy end with Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester toward the end of the last decade; it’s fair to wonder whether the current “crunch” facing several competitive teams is only going to make early extensions all the more conventional. Two teams currently built around young talent–Seattle and Atlanta—come to mind as two examples of clubs that may be trying to get ahead of the curve in that regard.
  • The Indians received a fair amount of criticism in the wake of the Corey Kluber trade—with many naysayers bemoaning the club’s $40MM-plus payroll drop since 2017. However, as Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com puts it, perhaps the Tribe has earned the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how they approach putting together a pitching staff. While giant-dollar deals for free agent pitchers have been issued liberally this winter, Cleveland will head into the 2019 season with a largely near-minimum staff. While some may read the club’s decision to unload Trevor Bauer and Corey Kluber as a sign of mere cheapness, Hoynes notes that the team received the bulk of its 2019 starts (113) from pitchers making the major-league minimum ($550k) or just over it—and to generally great success. With seven straight winning seasons built mainly around on-the-cheap pitching acquisitions, the Indians may simply be placing greater faith in their player development abilities than anything else. By my own addition, it may serve to remember that Kluber and Bauer were both generally unproven youngsters when they first arrived in Cleveland.

Marlins To Sign Corey Dickerson

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The Marlins are finalizing a two-year deal with free-agent outfielder Corey Dickerson, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. The contract will pay the 30-year-old $17.5MM over the next two years, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The deal is pending a physical.

In adding Dickerson, the Marlins have done well to fill a big need in the corner outfield, a vacancy they sought to address with one of Dickerson, Kole Calhoun, or Yasiel Puig. With Calhoun latching on with the Diamondbacks, it was reported this morning that the Fish were focusing their efforts on Dickerson rather than Puig, who’s undeniably a bigger name but whose offensive production veered in the wrong direction last year. Dickerson also adds a lefty bat to a lineup that’s otherwise heavy on right-handers; second baseman Isan Diaz is the only other projected starter who’s a true lefty.

Dickerson has a Gold Glove to his name, but if advanced metrics are to be believed, that caliber of performance is the exception, not the rule, with Dickerson, who was credited with saving 16 runs in left field in 2018—in all other years, he’s been worth -14 DRS. His calling card is his above-average offensive output; he’s been pretty consistently good at the plate since 2017, posting a wRC+ of at least 115 (15 percent better than average) in each of the last three seasons.

The addition of Dickerson is the latest in a series of solid additions for a Marlins team that finished with baseball’s third-worst record in 2019. They already nabbed Jesus Aguilar and Jonathan Villar earlier this month, claiming the former on waivers and the trading for the latter after the Orioles designated him for assignment. Veteran catcher Francisco Cervelli, signed last week, is another significant addition. They’re by no means dominating the offseason storylines by bringing in a handful of low-risk players, but these look like savvy acquisitions for a rebuilding club that has now overhauled one-third of its starting lineup.

Targeting the likes of Aguilar, Villar, Cervelli, and Dickerson on short-term contracts does no harm to the Marlins’ long-term financial outlook and figures to only help the team remain competitive in 2020. At the very least, acquisitions like this represent potential trade chips for a club that might still be a couple years away; still, these moves shouldn’t simply be dismissed as such.

Dickerson should slot in as Miami’s everyday left fielder, with Brian Anderson in the other outfield corner. Lewis Brinson might have another crack at the center field job, but he’ll be on a short leash after a rough couple of seasons. Interestingly, Craig Mish of FNTSY Sports even suggests that Villar could be in the mix for that center field position. He’s played the position only sparingly in his career and hasn’t done so in a game since 2017, but few will question whether he has the speed to patrol the spacious outfield of Marlins Park.

Quick Hits: NC Dinos, Rucinski, Royals, Orioles, Holt

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The NC Dinos of the Korean Baseball Organization have brought back pitcher Drew Rucinski on a one-year, $1MM deal with a $200K signing bonus, per Dan Kurtz of myKBO.net (via Twitter). The team also announced the deal on their twitter account. Rucinski, who turns 31 on Monday, last played in the states for the Marlins in 2018, putting up a 4.33 ERA/3.81 FIP across 32 appearances out of the pen. For the Dinos in 2019, he threw 177 1/3 innings of 3.05 ERA baseball, striking out 119 batters to 49 walks. On a slow news day, chew on these quick hits from the AL…

  • The Royals are not shy about how they value the versatility of players like Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier. Their recent signing of Maikel Franco attempts to take advantage of said versatility, with Dozier planned to move to right field to make room for the former Phillie, per MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Merrifield, meanwhile, is likely to lead off and play centerfield. The Royals have attempted to lengthen their lineup this offseason, and while it’s not the most daunting group, Kansas City expects better years out of Franco, Nicky Lopez, and Ryan O’Hearn, who all struggled mightily in 2019. Improvement is a low bar for this trio, and unless they make significant strides, it’s hard to imagine the Royals making much noise in the American League.
  • The Orioles made some additions to their coaching staff while shifting around a good chunk of the incumbent staff. Chris Holt, however, has taken on an entirely new role in the organization as the new Director of Pitching, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Holt was formerly the minor league pitching coordinator after defecting from Houston, but his new role will allow him the freedom to assist pitching coach Doug Brocail in implementing much of the data that accompanied GM Mike Elias to the organization. Holt will continue to spend much of his time with the minor leagues, but his new role will allow him to see his development projects through all the way to the bigs.

Outfield Market Notes: Akiyama, Puig, Dickerson

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Potential Japanese import Shogo Akiyama, 31, remains a popular target on the free agent market. Yesterday’s reports affirmed the Reds and Padres atop the list of pursuers. The long-time Seibu Lions centerfielder is said to have 3-year offers on the table, per MLB Network Insider Jon Heyman (via Twitter). The Cubs and Diamondbacks have also consistently been linked to the left-handed hitter, while the Rays and Blue Jays have had reported interest at various times during the offseason.

The 45th-ranked free agent on our Top 50 Free Agents list, Akiyama is one of the only true centerfield options on the open market, and he carries enough bat to find a place near the top of a batting order. His on-base ability in particular is drawing teams to his door, per Heyman. He carries a career .301/.376/.454 line from 9 seasons in the NPB, with OBPs floating right around .400 over the past five seasons.

MLBTR’s Dylan A. Chase asked readers early in the offseason to predict which NPB import would collect the largest guarantee. Akiyama landed firmly between Yoshitomo Tsutsugo and Shun Yamaguchi. We now know Tsutsugo claimed $12MM from the Rays while Yamaguchi got $6.35MM from the Blue Jays. Both deals are for two seasons. So while it’s reasonable to expect Akiyama to come on a fairly reasonable contract, the dearth of centerfield options could drive the bidding beyond either deal’s total guarantee.

Elsewhere among outfielders, the Marlins remain interested in Yasiel Puig. The volatile Cuban outfielder would certainly entertain Floridians, even if the .267/.327/.458 line he put up for the Reds and Indians in 2019 isn’t necessarily awe-inspiring. He did technically produce at an above-average rate with a 101 wRC+.

The Marlins, however, seem to be leaning towards Corey Dickerson at the moment, per FNTSY Sports Radio’s Craig Mish (via Twitter). The Fish have outfield prospects knocking on the door (namely, Monte Harrison and Jesus Sanchez), as well as intriguing talent a little further away (JJ Bleday, Victor Victor Mesa, Kameron Misner) – but they continue to explore adding offensive talent for the near-term.

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